Thursday, 25 July 2013

Here is the bag I made using the hexagons I had made from the batik triangles. It has been unpicked twice, first time I used polyester wadding and it was far too bulky so undid it. I removed the wadding and muslin from everywhere except under the patchwork as I had hand quilted this. I then tried quite a thick iron on vylene, did not like this either so managed to pull it off and finally mad it up without any thing apart from the black fabric and some very nice poly cotton for the lining. I suppose it is a bit floppy but I am quite happy with it, much happier than when it had the wadding in. Not sure if I will use it when I go to the quilt show, that had been my intention, mind you it is not very big for a shopping trip, maybe that s just as well!
Will not bore you with lots of photos, have put the 4 on a collage, close ups of the quilting, the red I did in the ditch then added some small hexagons, the green side I have done triangles on and nothing in the ditch. The green side is my favourite side. Did consider machine quilting but need to have some practise at it first as have not done any yet.

I have turned the top layer down a bit so you can see the lining, think it is nicer to put a nice one in rather than using lining fabric.

Monday, 22 July 2013

Yesterday I decided to play around with some jelly roll strips and came up with two pieces I thought I could use on the front and back of a bag. I joined 4 strips together but made some of the seams a bit wavy and some narrower than the 2.5". I then used my 60 degree triangle and cut out 6 triangles from each piece. Joined together I was quite pleased with the effect and have stitched them onto 2 pieces of black cotton which I will attempt to make into a bag. Need to get some nice fabric for the lining and thought I might try and attach a thin strip of batik fabric to each of the handles, unfortunately do not have much left now so it will be different than the strips I have used. Any advice on bag construction would be welcome. I am not sure what I attach the batting to, the main bag or the lining. Think it will be just a straight up and down bag with a 2" square cut out of the 2 bottom corners to give it a bit of fullness, have a few bag making books so should have a read about how to go about it. Do I need to do any quilting on it, if I quilt it must mean I attach the batting to the front and does that mean I need another piece of fabric under the batting, not sure about all this as I said earlier advice would be very welcome. I know you will not let me down!!

As you can see they are not the same size but that will not matter, I will have the green one as the front of the bag.

Wednesday, 17 July 2013

I am adding my latest Tula Pink challenge blocks this morning, seem to be keeping up with them, have actually done next weeks yesterday too but will not put them on till they have gone on the sew sweetness site.
block 22

block 23

block 24

I am pleased with 22 and 23 but 24 leaves a lot to be desired!! When I upload them to the site there is a cropping tool which I have now found and this does make them look a bit better but 24 was beyond help!

We are enjoying the most glorious weather here in the UK at the moment, how I love to feel the warmth of the sun on me, must admit would rather be sitting in the garden than walking about and it must be quite unpleasant working,some of the spuermarkets, shops, offices etc etc do not have air conditioning the air is pretty poor in these places, the staff seem to be coping, our little Sainsburys is very bad but it is closing for a refit at the end of the month, wonder if they will install a cooling system then as they really need it. Mind you we do not often have weather like this, they have said on the radio this morning it is the longest spell of hot weather we have ever had.

Friday, 12 July 2013

Today I will share some pin cushions I have made recently, they are nice little projects which stitch well whilst enjoying the sunshine in the garden

there are 3 star shaped ones, 2 made with 1.5" hexagons and the larger one with 2.5" ones. I found this tutorial on the abyquilt blog. The small blue one is the same design but put together wrong so it came out flat instead of star shaped. The biscornu I think I have shared before on my biscornu collage.I rather like the green one below the biscornu made with 8 2" hexagons, this one I found on the Lindlady blog. The oblong one I made years ago in the candlewick style and has been the one I have used a great deal. It is filled with sawdust so the pins do not rust. Think I have finally found someone who can give me some after a lot of searching, not sure if I will re stuff all the others or not, time will tell.. The pink and blue one is made from 60 degree diamonds that I found through a link on Anneliese `s blog the stitching lady, I am now doing one with 45 degrees and think this will come out longer. The final one under the large star is a whirly gig one from crazy mom quilts blog, have just realised that I have got it sewn together wrong, the left hand bottom piece needs rotating, will make another soon, hopefully correct this time.

I know I was given advice as to how to put a link on to other sites so you can hop over to from here but sorry cannot find the instructions, maybe one of you could let me know again and I will try not to lose it this time.

Here is my CQJP for july

my flower for july is the foxglove, I have lots in flower at the moment, all self seeded from next door, the bees have been so busy visiting them. Only one or two are this pal lemon colour mostly they are purple but have stuck with my colour way and done the lemon one.I have also put Sharon`s stencils to good use, they are a great buy and will have a play so I can make more of them but they only arrived the other day so rushed into them without looking at all her suggestions that I downloaded. One of the best buys I have made for a while.The butterfly is rather blue but saw on this colour when I went to tropical World with Helen last month and thought I could get away with the colour as there is blue in the feather stitching and think it sort of pulls things together, likewise the tatted red piece in the bottom left hand corner linking up with the red in the top left hand corner.The snail was stitched as I am overrun with slugs and snails at the moment, can`t pull pellets down as they are poisonous to the birds.

I also put together a rolling nine patch block which was in the popular patchwork magazine for june. Quite pleased with this one but would like to work out how to make it a smaller size as it measures 15"

Tuesday, 9 July 2013

It is time to add my latest three Tula Pink blocks, when I load them to the sew sweetness blog each week I have to load them from flickr and I am able to remove the background and square them up but have not found how to do that here.

this block is not as crocked as it looks on the photo I have not trimmed any yet, will wait till the end and see what I am going to do with them.

pleased with this one, sorry about the thread, did not notice it till now.

this one is rather boring!

Have decided that doing small blocks is more difficult than the bigger ones, thought little would be easier but these have changed my mind, sometimes there as as many as 24 pieces of fabric so loads and loads of seams. But I will not be defeated and plan to do all 100, a big big challenge for me but enjoying it, maybe enjoying is not the right description!

A few months ago I bought the pinwheel magic 4.5" template and then could not work out how to use it but the other day it was being promoted on create and craft again and have now got my act together and have done it a few samples of the three shapes it makes, once again the poly cotton came out, they take more fabric than I expected and the A block has quite a bit of wastage which will go into the little scrap stash I am collecting.

this one I used 3 fabrics on template A

this is template A again with just 2 fabrics.

here is template B

this is from template C

My favourite is template A and can see me doing some more of these but have not worked out about colours or if I can make a few all different and will they go together okay or will the pinwheels not be seen if multi coloured, any information will be greatfully received.

Helen`s move went well, delayed by a day but she is in and loves it.We are still unpacking, I have had 2 days off since a week last monday and feeling very tired but at least it is only 10 mins walk away rather than over an hour and 2 buses from where she lived before. Will go round this afternoon, she has been on a night shift last night so plans to have a sleep this morning then plod on in the afternoon. I took the lawn mower round on sunday and cut the lawns and also removed loads of dandelions, previous people obviously did not do much with the garden but they had a wonderful trellis with clematis, roses and other things growing, unfortunately the flowering is almost over but here is a photo anyway.

we have to bend our heads to get into the further part of her garden, you can see the rose, they are massive but past their best.Helen thinks she is going to do away with this trellis I do hope she changes her mind, need to find out about pruning and see if we can keep it.

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

It is tuesday and I am a day late in doing my Tula Pink challenge, have had the blocks stitched over a week now but one I did a replacement for as I was even unhappier with it than some of the others.

block 16

the redo of block 17

block 17 discarded

block 18

block 17 in the 2 shades of blue I took apart a few times and redid , now I see it on the blog it does not look much worse than its repalcement. I must learn how to put the photo on without any table showing, discovered how to crop them at last when I load them onto the challenge site today and think they look better, not so out of line etc.

My younger daughter Helen (37) is moving into her first house tomorrow, she has been living in shared accommodation for a long time but has now got a mortgage and is feeling `grown up`. I have been helping her pack, yesterday we worked long and hard packing all her books , clothes, kitchen things and bits and pieces, fortunately not too much left to do today ready for the move tomorrow, we plan to bring everything downstairs and I have been good and written on the boxes where they are to go at the new house. Alfie her cat will come and stay with me tonight so he will not be too disturbed by the move, he loves coming here, won`t be surprised if he appears at my door when in the new house as it is a 5 to 10 min walk form me. Helen will also stay tomorrow night as her bed does not arrive till thursday. She has very little furniture of her own apart form her wardrobe, chest of drawers, dressing table and bedside cabinet which we bought for her years ago and we have fingers crossed the wardrobe will get up the stairs! Also has a fridge, freezer, washing machine and 2 TV`s. We do not think the freezer will fit in the kitchen, previous owners have them side by side but Helen`s freezer we think is too wide. She has ordered a suite but we have to go and finalise everything this afternoon as it was ordered on the scheme that if the house fell through she would not have to have it but she got it at the sale price. Will now take 4 to 6 weeks for it to be made but she has an old couch which will do for the time being.

Thought I would share a photo with you all, Helen is not one for cooking, being a nurse she does a lot of shift work and is not adverse to getting take aways, the photo is what she found in her potato bag which is meant to stop potatoes sprouting or going off!!

Helen thinks I am mad as I take photos of odd things but who knows what this might inspire me to stitch, or maybe another blogger will be inspired!